after years of campaigning, health advocates finally convinced many household product manufacturers to remove the chemical bisphenol a, known as bpa, from items like receipts, plastic bottles and the lining of tin cans. and as a result, it&rsquos not hard to find products labeled &ldquobpafree.&rdquo but it turns out the chemicals used to replace bpa may have nearly the exact impact on the human body &mdash hormone disruption &mdash as bpa, according to a new study in the journal environmental health perspectives.&ldquoaccording to pretty much all the literature there is on these two substitutes, they are hormonally active in ways similar to bpa &ndash similar mechanisms, similar potencies,&rdquo said study author johanna rochester, a researcher at the endocrine disruption exchange.the study evaluated existing research on two bpa replacement chemicals bisphenol s and f, known as bps and bpf. the similarity between the compounds may extend beyond the name, the study suggests. for one, the compounds&rsquo structures are remarkably similar. the compounds also behave like bpa, part of the reason why they make a good replacement for manufacturers &mdash if not for consumers looking to oust hormonedisrupting chemicals from their products.research on the health effects of bpf and bps is still in its early stages &mdash just because a chemical has the ability to behave a certain way in the body doesn&rsquot necessarily mean it&rsquos dangerous. still, the researchers say based on what we do know, the average consumer has reason to be a little concerned. bpa has been shown to cause problems with human reproduction, metabolism, neurological function and a whole host of other problems.&ldquowe&rsquove got to do something about putting brand new compounds in products without having consulted with biologists about what they do,&rdquo said cheryl s. watson, a professor at the university of texas medical branch at galveston, who was not involved in this research.but beyond researchers sounding the alarm, what should you do as a consumer if you&rsquore concerned about bps and bpfhere&rsquos a good place to startknow that bpafree products can still have unhealthy chemicals.this is the most important thing to know and it&rsquos pretty straightforward a bpafree label doesn&rsquot mean a product is free from other harmful chemical compounds that are slightly different but have a different name. indeed, the bpafree package program, a thirdparty group that verifies that products don&rsquot have bpa, is halting operations because the certification creates a &ldquofalse halo of health&rdquo given growing evidence of the dangers of bps and bpf. still, because products with bps and bpf behave similarly to products with bpa, you can follow the same rules to avoid the associated hazards that you would use for bpa.avoid handling receipts.receipts at many grocery stores and retailers are printed on a product known as &ldquothermal&rdquo paper. these receipts, once heavy in bpa, are often made with bps or bpf these days. in some ways, exposure to these compounds in receipts may be riskier than exposure to containers made with the compound. in receipts, bps and bpf are &ldquofree&rdquo and can easily migrate from the product to your skin and other surfaces. &ldquoif it&rsquos a receipt that i do need, i&rsquoll hold out my bag and ask the person to drop into the bag so i don&rsquot have to touch it,&rdquo watson says.drink from steel or glass containers, not plastic ones.steel and glass drinking containers are widely available. it makes sense to purchase a few for the house and a few for the office.don&rsquot microwave your food in plastic containers.the heat from the microwave can separate bpalike compounds from plastic containers, making them easier for the consumer to ingest. if you must use plastic tupperware, you should avoid the microwave. ideally, you just store food in ceramic or glass containers in the first place. 
